Review of She Said, directed by Maria Schrader

She Said is just one of those movies I procrastinated on watching for the longest time. It was out in theaters when I originally renewed my AMC A List subscription, and I literally kept booking tickets to see then and kept flaking at the last minute.

I’m pretty sure I booked tickets for this movie about five times and never ended up watching it. Then, when I flew Southwest to Seattle in March 2023, I was very pleased to see that this movie was on their demand library. So I booted up the wifi for my second flight and began watching it—but then it cut out after the first thirty-one minutes.

Naturally, I was devastated to leave this movie hanging, but I didn’t bother watching it on demand.

Then, when I was flying Delta on a different flight, I ended up seeing it on the screen in front of me and watched all of it. Journalism movies are very much hit or miss for me, because the job typically is not as glamorous as the movies try to make it seem. In the end, I say She Said is alright. Just alright.

Onwards with the review!

Reporters Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey crack the Harvey Weinstein case.

For those who go into these kinds of movies unaware about the real events—which one should be able to deduce from the real life figures being depicted throughout the movie—this was based on the Harvey Weinstein sexual assault allegations that led to his downfall from Hollywood in the late 2010s.

It was kind of known as an open secret at the point of the publications by The New Yorker and The New York Times, but the women involved with the case were forced to sign NDAs and could not publicly accuse him of what he did because of it. She Said tracks the efforts by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey to find out the victims and get them to go on the record so they could have at least one name on the publication.

Both women are reporting at The New York Times at the beginning of the movie, but aren’t working together on the same case. Megan previously did work on sexual assault, but, at the start of the film, has given birth to her daughter and struggles with post partum depression along with the fact she has taken time off of work.

But when Jodi starts digging deeper into the interviews of celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Ashley Judd, she begins to realize that there’s something really sinister about Harvey Weinstein.

She enlists the help of Megan when she realizes that the women are largely not going to want to go on the record with what happened to them, especially considered they can be faced with legal action.

The two women, while juggling their home lives and children, hit the road in order to talk to the victims, many of whom have kept it a secret from their husbands, families, and loved ones. It leads them across the United States and even in England, where the Miramax Group had set up offices in the nineties.

There are a lot of dead ends coming throughout the interviews, as, like mentioned before, a lot of the women are scared to be talking about the sexual assaults that happened against them.

At the same time, Harvey Weinstein and his crew are starting to appear in the voicemails of The New York Times. Both Megan and Jodi are the targets of their endless barrage about what’s happening with the investigation, as we learn Weinstein is very dedicated to keeping this all under wraps while denying it never happened.

Another big roadblock is that Weinstein has connections everywhere. When they start digging at the DA’s office and on the legal side of things, they find out that they’re basically friends with him.

All of this was covered up because of his connections, and when Megan calls, they simply suggest that nothing happened. But over the course of the movie, as we get to the final sprint when everyone is writing and editing the article, some decide it is okay to name them despite the circumstances.

Overall Thoughts

She Said is an important movie for a wide variety of reasons. It keeps the conversation going about the abuse many women face in Hollywood, especially as they’re trying to get their foot in the door. Another big thing about is that it specifically depicts two women journalists who are very much balancing raising families and their careers.

Both Jodi and Megan have children and spouses, and it’s kind of made clear what must be sacrificed in the name of pursuing their careers. We don’t often get that in journalism movies, as they’re focused on men and the women in it tend to be an afterthought, or victims.

I think my problem is that I’m not into journalism movies, maybe because I’ve worked in this industry for a bit now. That’s the thing about art and literature—I may not like it, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie. There’s immense value in watching movies like these, and I suggest you do.

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